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Bad news for Jalen

CHICAGO—Jalen Rose's injured left hand, originally believed to have a fractured bone in it, has not one, not two, not three but four breaks.

The veteran guard got the update when he awoke during the operation, which he thought was going to last no longer than 45 minutes.

"I woke up and I was still on the table, and I was like, `Hey, how long are we going to be here?'" he said. "And they said, `Jalen, we thought it was, like, one (fracture) we had to fix, but it was four.'

"It was reported as being my finger. No. It's my hand. There's a plate and a couple of screws — they took the screws out of my head and put them in my hand," he quipped.

Rose believes the injury originated while he was still playing for the Chicago Bulls at training camp. He specifically remembers a collision with Jamal Crawford.

"Crawford had the ball on the wing, and it was like a loose ball scrum," Rose recalled. "I tried to dig at the ball and I hurt it (the hand) the first day (of camp)."

The timing is especially rotten for Rose, since this is the time of the season he lives for.

"I always considered this my time of year, and I feel like this is the time of year that I'm really here, this is the time of year that they brought me here for — a playoff run, and the playoffs," the 10-year veteran said. "It's somewhat disheartening, but injuries are a part of the game. The good thing that's going to happen is now I'll be completely healthy. And I get a chance to feel like myself, for whatever that's worth."

The team said Rose will be out indefinitely, but as he slid a pressure glove over his hand, he said he hoped it would be more like one month.

JENNIFER QUINN

Why do the things that we treasure most, slip away in time
Till to the music we grow deaf, to God's beauty blind
Why do the things that connect us slowly pull us apart?
Till we fall away in our own darkness, a stranger to our own hearts
And life itself, rushing over me
Life itself, the wind in black elms,
Life itself in your heart and in your eyes, I can't make it without you